Obligatory post on Germany’s selection for Eurovision 2026

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Here are my thoughts on my country’s entry for Eurovision 2026, “Fire” by Sarah Engels:

It’s generic and beige radio pop with zero personality that sounds like something I’ve heard hundreds of times before and proves the German Eurovision team has learned nothing. This is exactly the kind of song I wanted Germany to stop sending. The national final was overloaded with songs of this type so it was inevitable that would happen. Not a single one of these songs gripped me or inspired me, but I would have been at least somewhat happy if they sent one of the two German-language songs, because I feel very strongly that Germany needs to stop pretending their language doesn’t exist. But I’ve said that like a million times in my Eurovision blog post series.

Yes, I pasted this paragraph from my review of the 2024 selection. The only change I made was replacing “NDR” with “the German Eurovision team”, because this year SWR organized the selection instead, but the lineup of songs is just as dull either way. And yes, as with 2024, the selection had only nine songs in total and only two were in German. Also, in the above paragraph, when I said none of the songs gripped me or inspired me, that was a lie. There is one entry in this selection I do really love, and I’ll save it for the end of the post.

I should note that I didn’t actually watch the German selection live, though I did see a few snippets of past German-speaking contestants (Paola del Medico and Michael Schulte) talking about their experience in Eurovision, as well as Hazel Brugger being Hazel Brugger (I mean that in a good way). To those that don’t speak German, Hazel’s sections probably just seem like a bunch of yapping, but I can promise you her humor is even funnier in her native language. On that day (February 28) I instead watched Finland’s national final which consisted entirely of bangers. It was pretty obvious “Liekinheitin” would win but I loved the show anyway.

I’ll give the German producers this: they put a lot of effort into staging each song as good as they can. I suppose that’s part of Germany’s approach these days, making the staging sell the song as good as possible even if the tune itself is widely regarded as “meh”. It worked with “Always on the Run” back in 2024—it’s crazy how much fans turned on that song after Isaak performed it in Malmö.

The song lineup though, it is just so beige it hurts. One entry in this selection is my favorite by far, but I’ll save it for the end of this post. “Jeanie” by Dreamboys is a radio pop song that is pleasant enough to listen to and has decent harmonies but doesn’t quite manage to grip me. “Wonderland” by Laura Nahr starts off slow but is decent enough once it picks up the pace, but the only part I really like is the slightly dissonant “wonder-wonder-wonderland” bit. “A OK” by Milo “Myle” Hoelz is without a doubt the most boring song of the lineup, basically a total non-event.

None of the songs I just talked about made it to the superfinal, and neither did the two songs in German. “Herz” by Bela is a decent enough boybop in German with a swing beat similar to our last winner “Satellite”, but it doesn’t have quite the gripping factor “Baller” by Abor and Tynna has. I’ll dedicate a bit more time to the token joke entry, “Ciao Ragazzki” by Ragazzki. I’ve never been totally able to make my mind up about that song, but Marti and David’s enthusiasm on stage makes me feel absolutely gutted that they didn’t win or even make it to the superfinal. Marti Fischer released several YouTube videos in German promoting his song and it’s very clear he wanted to go to Eurovision with this. He clearly designed the song with the thought of “what is the most Eurovisiony song I could possibly write?” The chorus is so repetitive and the rapping is too talk-singy, but their excitement on stage makes me somewhat like it. I think I have a soft spot for two goofy guys having the time of their life on stage—see also Jedward and Væb. Unfortunately the candidates for the superfinal were chosen completely by juries, which doomed this song’s chances.

Of the three songs that made it to the superfinal, I already discussed the winning song “Fire”—it’s an ultra-generic overchoreographed girlbop and total Fuego clone, a very disappointing choice for Germany in the contest. “Optimist” by Molly Sue is the token gloomy sadgirl ballad every recent German selection seems to have, and I admit it’s one of the better songs, mainly because Molly really feels the lyrics and they have a good theme to go with them. “Black Glitter” by Wavvyboi is also one of the better songs and I would’ve preferred it to go to Eurovision over “Fire”, since it’s a major key rock song with a fair bit of personality and gains a decent rock beat once it gets going.

Eurofans whose countries do national finals often say that with other countries they want their favorite entry to win, but with their own country they want the entry best suited for Eurovision to win. I’m very much this way with German national finals. In 2024 none of the songs felt particularly suited to the contest, in 2025 “Baller” was very clearly the best choice for Eurovision, and in 2026 with the return of juries to semifinals, “Ciao Ragazzki” might have actually gotten a decent result. But it sure as hell isn’t my favorite entry this year: that would be “When I’m with You” by Malou Lovis. It’s relaxed and just a tad jazzy, and it makes for excellent casual listening. It’s nice to have a romantic song that’s just plain wholesome and positive for a change, instead of all those bitter breakup tunes. It’s got sweet romantic lyrics, it’s quite interesting compositionally, I can put it on whenever I need to unwind after a long day, what more could you ask for? I’ll gladly forgive Malou Lovis for not singing in German, because if a song is good enough it doesn’t matter what language it’s in. This was obviously not going to win the German Eurovision selection—the only way it would have is if the juries and televoters were all replaced with clones of me.

So yeah, the German selection actually had a few decent songs and one that I surprisingly love. But the winning song is exactly what I feared would win, and I am just so disappointed in my country for choosing it. Or rather, in my country for letting the international juries (of whom not a single one was German) advance it to the superfinal and allow the televoters to pick it as their favorite. All of this means that this year, I just have to root for other countries. I won’t spoil too much on my tastes, but as of right now my two biggest favorites are Greece and Denmark.

My plans for posts about Eurovision 2026

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Hi everyone, I haven’t posted on this blog in a little while! I just wanted to give you an update on how I plan to cover Eurovision 2026 on my blog.

I’ve decided after a lot of thinking that I will in fact watch Eurovision 2026. There are already quite a few great songs selected and I just won’t be able to resist watching them live, plus it’ll be a fun thing to do with online friends (and maybe some family members on the final if I can convince them). I cannot say I’m excited for the next Eurovision because of the elephant in the room, but I do still want to watch it live and try to enjoy it as much as I can. The one thing I’m not sure about is whether I will vote in this year’s contest, because as a rest of the world voter I’m pretty sure my money would go to directly to the EBU. I’ll see how I feel when the show happens.

My plan is to release four blog posts about Eurovision 2026. They’re as follows:

The first post will be a discussion on the German national final for the year. I won’t actually be watching the German selection live this year, because it’s on the same day as Finland’s selection which is a fest of bangers, not a fest of dull radio pop. But writing a blog post about the German selection has become a tradition for me so I intend to continue that. As with the 2024 selection, I’m really disappointed the song lineup is so bland and has so few songs in German, so I’m preemptively disappointed for whatever my country will send.

Now for the second post: I’ve been watching lots of national finals this season, but I won’t make any posts reviewing a full national final this year. Instead, in March I’ll write a post listing a few hidden gems from national finals that didn’t make it to Eurovision.

And finally, after I watch Eurovision 2026 live, you should expect a pair of posts reviewing the show after the week is over. Rest assured, it’ll include plenty of ranting about what incompetent fuckbags the EBU are. But it should also include some of my usual analysis of what makes a song great.

ESC250 2025: My predictions and analysis of the results

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Happy new year, everyone! It’s still 2025 in Ohio as I’m writing this post, but not for much longer. I’ve decided to send off my blogging about Eurovision (for now) with something fun: an analysis of the results of the annual fan vote ESC250, specifically those for the entries of Basel 2025. The results were streamed on a French radio station on December 31, then once the stream ended the full results were published. Here are my votes with the position each song ended up in:

Here are my predictions of how high each entry would score:

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Eurovision Side Post: Changes to My List of Winners (end of 2025 edition)

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To any Eurofans reading my blog: this will be my second last Eurovision-related blog post for the time being. My last will be an analysis of the ESC250 2025 results on New Year’s Day, since I made a list of predictions of where each 2025 entry will land in the ESC250 and want to see how right I was. After that, I probably won’t blog about Eurovision (not even about past contests) until the 2026 contest happens. I’m not sure yet if I will review Eurovision 2026 or not; I’ll see how I feel in May.

Anyway, it’s time for some updates to my list of winners of each Eurovision year! My latest version of the winners list was on my 1974 re-review. Most of these updates I was gonna save for my re-reviews of each year, but I’ve decided to put those posts on hiatus.

In my 1975 round 2 review, I was going to surprise you guys by changing my winner to Turkey, Seninle Bir Dakika. I did start writing that post and here’s a snippet of what I said about my old winner, “Ding-a-Dong”: Now, I’m afraid, I’ve gotten a little tired of this song. Don’t get me wrong, I still like it, but I’ve overdosed on it so much that it doesn’t have quite the magic it used to. I’ve even had to demote it all the way from a 10/10 to an 8. Still, I think this song was absolutely the right winner this year, because it leaves a stellar first impression and that’s exactly what’s needed to do well in Eurovision. Turkey’s entry, on the other hand? Now that has massively grown on me and I curse the juries for giving it last place. That’s not how you treat a Eurovision newcomer! This song is a truly gorgeous minor key ballad whose singer gives an emotional, passionate performance.

Next up is another retcon to Turkey, and it has to do with my 8-bit cover project on YouTube (which I am still doing). When searching for entries from 1985 to cover, I realized that “Didai Didai Dai” would be absolutely perfect for an 8-bit cover, since it’s got a really nice funky beat that reminds me of Mario music. Soon after, I decided my winner of the year would be “La det swinge” no longer, but Turkey, Didai Didai Dai. It helps that MFÖ are such likable performers!

Speaking of MFÖ, my winner of 1988 is now Turkey, Sufi. For 1988 it was a real challenge picking a song to 8-bit cover, because I really don’t like most entries that year. But then I stumbled upon the studio version of “Sufi”, and what a banger it is! It’s much better than the orchestra version and once again has a cool funky 80’s beat. Now I can say that 1988 at least has one song worth listening to. Sorry, Lara Fabian!

And speaking of my 8-bit covers, I’ve changed my winner of 1992 to Finland, Yamma Yamma. Hey, don’t look at me funny—the song is catchy as hell! By Eurovision 1992 standards it’s a total banger. Not to say it’s the most amazing song in the world, but since 1992 is a notoriously weak year, I’d say it did not deserve last place.

My new winner of 1997 might surprise you. It was originally “Dinle”, then I temporarily changed it to “Sentiments songes” (whose singer Fanny Biascamano died of cancer a few days ago, 46 is much too young to die), and now I’m giving the honor to Poland, Ale jestem. It’s a song that took quite a while to grow on me, but now I utterly love the fuck out of it. It’s a mind-blowing composition that throws so many cool melodies and instruments all in the course of three minutes and is in close contention with “River” from 2022 with the best Polish entry.

And finally, let’s skip ahead to 2025. I know I had retconned my winner to “Bara bada bastu” not long ago, but now I’m changing it to what I should’ve chosen the whole time: Latvia, Bur man laimi. I’ll never forget how much the song knocked my socks off the first time I heard it, which was when I watched the Supernova semifinal, and I love it just as much today. It’s hard to think of a Eurovision song more “me” than this one. In a Discord server I asked people for fun which Eurovision entries they associate with me, and this was an answer that one person gave. Other answers I got included “Europapa”, “Alcohol Is Free”, “Funny Girl”, and “The Moon Is Rising”—the last of them because I frequently mention how much I hate it.

EDIT: Wait, I missed one. I’ll change my 1980 winner from “What’s Another Year” to Morocco, Bitaqat Hub because it’s such an awesome and unique Middle Eastern song. I also love that the lyrics are an earnest message about peace, in a way that doesn’t feel clichéd.

Alright guys, here’s my updated winner list:

  • Belgium, 3 (1957, 1976, 2003)
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2 (2001, 2006)
  • Denmark, 2 (1963, 2000)
  • Finland, 6 (1974, 1983, 1989, 1992, 2010, 2023)
  • France, 3 (1977, 1990, 1991)
  • Germany, 5 (1956, 1968, 1979, 1982, 1999)
  • Greece, 1 (2013)
  • Hungary, 2 (2005, 2019)
  • Ireland, 2 (1970, 1994)
  • Israel, 1 (1987)
  • Italy, 1 (1964)
  • Latvia, 3 (2002, 2018, 2025)
  • Lithuania, 1 (2022)
  • Luxembourg, 3 (1965, 1972, 1973)
  • Moldova, 1 (2009)
  • Monaco, 1 (1960)
  • Morocco, 1 (1980)
  • Montenegro, 1 (2015)
  • Netherlands, 7 (1959, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1998, 2014, 2024)
  • North Macedonia, 1 (2020)
  • Norway, 3 (1966, 1993, 1995)
  • Poland, 1 (1997)
  • Portugal, 2 (1984, 2017)
  • Serbia, 4 (2004, 2008, 2011, 2012)
  • Sweden, 2 (1958, 1996)
  • Switzerland, 2 (1986, 2021)
  • Turkey, 4 (1975, 1978, 1985, 1988)
  • Ukraine, 2 (2007, 2016)
  • United Kingdom, 3 (1961, 1962, 1981)
  • (18 winners; hoping my math is right!)

See you again on January 1! And remember, people: Fuck the EBU.

Iceland is skipping Eurovision 2026; here are my thoughts

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Today, Iceland became the fifth country to quit Eurovision 2026 over Israel’s participation. They were on the fence about it for a few days, but now they’ve made their choice, helped no doubt by all the protesters outside the RÚV headquarters. There was just no way the Icelandic public would want their country participating in Eurovision during these circumstances.

And that’s actually so fucking sad. I mean, I’ll give a heartfelt takk to RÚV for doing the right thing, but it’s sad that it had to come down to this. All the countries that love Eurovision the most are leaving. The Netherlands and Spain both have massive Eurovision fanbases, and while I don’t know much about how popular the contest is in Slovenia, I do know the country has a knack for sending fan favorites even if they don’t score well on the night, and that a lot of the country’s best-known musicians took part in the contest. I know from my trips to Malmö and Basel that the Irish are absolutely obsessed with Eurovision, and I can tell the Icelanders are just as obsessed if not more. Most of Iceland’s recent entries have been great, interesting songs, even some I wasn’t too kind to in my blog posts. “Með hækkandi sól” from 2022 has massively grown on me the past few months, and even the fan unfavorite “Scared of Heights” from 2024 is growing on me because a friend of mine frequently mentions how much he loves it (hi if you’re reading this!).

Iceland is the country many fans believe would’ve won in 2020, and even the country where much of the Eurovision movie was filmed. Till this point, they had never missed a Eurovision year except in 1998 and 2002, which was just due to the relegation system. The fact that a country that loves Eurovision this much is leaving the contest is not fucking normal. It proves that the EBU has made a shamefully wrong decision. Why is the EBU doing this? Why the FUCK is the EBU doing this??? WHAT THE FUCK DO THEY HAVE TO LOSE BY JUST BANNING ISRAEL ALREADY LIKE THEY DID WITH RUSSIA? Answer: they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. But nooooo, they want to do everything the hard way. I don’t fucking understand why they prioritize keeping Israel in over four, now five other countries.

I mean come on, even Eurovision legend Johnny Logan thinks Israel should be banned from the contest, because he’s actually a sensible person unlike those fuckhead idiots at the EBU. Noa, one of the singers of “There Must Be Another Way” from 2009, also believes her country should skip the next contest in solidarity with all the suffering civilians. That’s exactly what I wanted Israel to do since late 2023. That’s exactly what they should’ve done and Eurovision would’ve never been constantly on the brink of disaster. No one would have thought the worse of Kan if they decided to just read the fucking room!

Maybe there’s no point in me ranting about this, since I’m sure plenty of other people are doing the same. But as someone who became a massive Eurofan since 2023 and made a lot of great friendships thanks to the contest, I need to get these thoughts off my chest. The EBU can’t just fucking spam the phrase “United by Music” everywhere and pretend everything’s OK. It was a great slogan at first but now the EBU just uses it to rationalize their shitty, cowardly decisions.

I genuinely did not think it would be possible for any Eurovision year to be a greater trainwreck than 2024. I was wrong. Eurovision 2026 is still five months away and it’s already turned into a worse shitshow. The next contest is going to be an absolute fucking disaster and then the EBU will either have to REALLY change things or face even more countries dropping out. Will future Eurovision contests recover from this? I don’t fucking know. The best thing I can hope for is that Eurovision 2026 is just an ultra-dark spot in the contest’s history and the EBU will then have no choice but to get their shit together. But I don’t know how on earth the contest can regain the trust of fans after all these blunders. We’ll just have to see what happens.

Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. I can’t say it enough times. Fuck the EBU.

My thoughts on the EBU’s decision on Israel participating in Eurovision 2026

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Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Just imagine me repeatedly saying that a hundred times. Or more, if you like.

Today, the European Broadcasting Union made the immoral decision to allow Israel to participate in Eurovision 2026, even though that country is still bombing the shit out of Gaza, even though they manipulated the televote with some help from their government in both the past two contests, and even though four broadcasters (RTVE from Spain, AVROTROS from the Netherlands, RTÉ from Ireland, RTVSLO from Slovenia) said they would withdraw from the contest if Israel is allowed in. And these four countries did indeed quit the contest for 2026.

Muchas gracias, RTVE. Dank je wel, AVROTROS. Thank you and go raibh maith agat to RTÉ. And najlepša hvala to RTVSLO for being the first broadcaster to threaten to withdraw. You guys have so much more spine and integrity than the EBU. Fuck the EBU, by the way. Fuck the EBU. Israel’s broadcaster Kan are incredibly fucking selfish as well, to insist on participating in the contest despite how much of a shitshow it would be for everyone else.

I’m at a loss about this decision. It is so obviously wrong on so many levels to do this, and I am pissed off and disgusted at the EBU for doing this. Even if I had a full-time job that could pay for it, I will not go to Eurovision 2026. Not just because the EBU made an immoral decision, but also because I believe there will be a huge amount of protests against Israel participating in 2026, and I would not feel safe being surrounded by so many. I don’t think there will be quite as many protests as there were in Malmö 2024, since Malmö is such a Muslim-heavy city, but there will be a lot nonetheless. I felt very unsafe surrounded by all those protests when I went to Malmö and I’d much rather not go through a repeat of that in Vienna 2026. There would simply be no way to ignore the elephant in the room if I go to the next contest. I have no idea yet if I will even watch the show at all. Maybe I’ll just watch the songs and rank them on my own, and not engage with the Israeli entry at all.

Honestly I’m starting to question why I even went to the contest in 2024, when I knew ever since October 2023, when the war in Gaza began, that Israel participating would turn it into a massive shitshow. I don’t regret going there—I’m glad I got to see all the entries from that contest live (semifinal 1 in a rehearsal, semifinal 2 the live show), and I’m glad I got to meet and make a handful of friends there, except for one person I spent most of the trip with who was a complete asshole to me. I’m similarly glad I went to Eurovision 2025, which was a much happier experience for me, despite the show ending on an extremely sour note where the country that should’ve been banned almost won.

The EBU has such a fucking obvious double standard it’s unreal. Back in 2022, they were quick to ban Russia when only two broadcasters (ERR and Yle) outright said they would not participate if Russia is allowed in. To be fair, there were more that made it clear they felt Russia should not be allowed in, but still, the EBU has a big double standard and is willing to bend backwards to keep Israel participating even if it causes four other countries to leave the contest, probably because they’re scared that if they don’t do that they’ll be called antisemitic.

I’ll say it a few more times: Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU.

Fuck the EBU.

Cookie Fonster Plows Once Again Through Eurovision 1974: The Year Hosted in My Birthplace

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Intro Post

< 1973 Review | 1974 Review | 1975 Review >

Introduction

Yes, I was actually born in Brighton, England, which is where Eurovision 1974 (the year of my dad’s birth) took place. But I do not consider myself British at all. My parents just happened to be spending a year abroad in England and returned to the United States when I was three months old, and I haven’t been back to the UK since.

Luxembourg had hosted and won Eurovision 1973, but unsurprisingly for such a small country, they refused to host Eurovision twice in a row. Spain who came second place also declined to host, so the EBU asked the ever-eager BBC to hold their horses as they looked for other countries who could do it. Israel’s IBA offered to do it, as did the BBC’s rival broadcaster ITV, but the IBA lagged behind many European broadcasters in technology, and ITV participating meant the BBC wouldn’t be able to. So the BBC bidded to host after all, and after getting the offer they chose to put on the show in the Brighton Dome. The arena normally had 2100 seats, but half of them had to be temporarily removed to make way for commentator booths and other equipment, which means this is another show with a rather small audience.

As with the previous contest, 17 countries took part this year, but we have a little swap-out. Greece made their debut whereas France dropped out because of their president Georges Pompidou’s sudden death. This year has a mythic place in Eurovision lore because it has a lot of songs that tie in with real-world events in some way, not to mention two very big names: Olivia Newton-John representing the UK, and the winners, ABBA from Sweden. But what I’m interested in is, do the songs this year hold up? We’re about to find out together.

Before I dive into the songs, there are some clever details in this year’s production I’d like to point out. For one thing, I like that the producers picked one good-looking font and used it throughout the show. The font is called Optima Bold and looks remarkably timeless. It fits well in a 1970’s show and wouldn’t be out of place in something produced in 2025 either. The logo for this year’s contest is also timeless and cleverly designed: a bird holding a microphone circled by the text “EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 1974”. The postcards are fabulous too: first they show a bit of the participating country, then footage from the contestant’s rehearsal, and finally them having a good time exploring Brighton. They cram a lot of material into 40-ish seconds and do it really well.

Did I forget anything? Oh right… Katie Boyle hosted this contest, making it her fourth and final time presenting Eurovision. She still holds the record for most times having hosted Eurovision; the only other people who have hosted multiple contests are Jacqueline Joubert (1959, 1961) and Petra Mede (2013, 2016, 2024). Unfortunately, this time around Katie looks like she’s afraid something disastrous will happen throughout the show. If you read up a little bit on this contest, you’ll know why that is: it’s because she wasn’t wearing underwear beneath her dress. I watched the show with British commentary done by David Vine.

And one more thing: the voting system got reverted to “each jury has 10 members who can give a point to one song each” for one last time. Surprisingly, no country scored zero points this year. Instead, four countries tied for last place with three points each: Norway, Germany, Switzerland, and Portugal.

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Cookie Fonster Recounts Eurovision 1973 Again: The Year Where Fans Fixed the Audio

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Intro Post

< 1972 Review | 1973 Review | 1974 Review >

Introduction

Vicky Leandros’ victory brought Eurovision to Luxembourg for the third of four times. This time, the show took place in the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, which has 943 seats in the main theatre and 400 in the studio. That is a tiny audience by modern standards, the kind you might see in a smaller country’s national final. I think this gives the show an intimate feel, compared to those with grandiose arenas such as 1968 in the Royal Albert Hall. This intimate feel is further helped by the orchestra surrounding the performers in a circle, which I think looks just plain awesome. Unfortunately the show has no postcards this year. We only get a picture of each singer taken during a rehearsal with their name on the bottom to introduce each song, and they often have unflattering expressions.

Eurovision 1973 is a year of many firsts. It was the first year to have at least one female conductor (for Sweden and Israel), the first that explicitly let countries sing in any language they wanted, the first where at least one song used a backing track (“Power to All Our Friends” from the UK), and the first year where Israel participated. Austria and Malta from last year skipped this contest, meaning it had a total of 17 participating countries. Because this was Israel’s first time participating and came just a year after the horrific Munich massacre, the contest had extreme security measures in place, especially for the Israeli delegation. According to Swedish conductor Monica Dominique, two men with machine guns guarded both sides of the stage throughout the television broadcast.

The intro to the show is pretty simple: an opening film with little clips of the contestants set to an orchestration of “Après toi”, a glimpse at Vicky and Leo Leandros in the audience, then the presenter Helga Guitton introducing the show in French and English with a pinch of German and a few words in Luxembourgish. I watched the show with German commentary uploaded to YouTube just a few weeks ago, but I made sure to check out the versions of each song with strings created by awuga. The orchestra had major sound issues this year which caused the strings to be mostly inaudible on TV, although when I first watched the year I just thought the orchestra was brassier than usual.

The top three of this year are all quite iconic: Cliff Richard with “Power to All My Friends” at third place, a very famous Spanish song called “Eres tú” at second, and the winner was Luxembourg with “Tu te reconnaîtras”—the second of five times the host country won.

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Cookie Fonster Relistens to Eurovision 1972: Vicky Gets Her Revenge

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Intro Post

< 1971 Review | 1972 Review | 1973 Review >

Sorry this post took so long! I got sidetracked by other projects, that’s all. It’s quite exciting to see Romania and Bulgaria return after multi-year breaks to Eurovision 2026—let’s hope they send honest efforts and not flops. But I’m still very much worried about the elephant in the room that is Israel’s participation. I still firmly believe that country should be banned from 2026. It’s pretty clear that the EBU is trying to procrastinate dealing with this issue as long as possible. We’ll see what happens, I suppose. I don’t see any of the countries that said they would boycott the contest if Israel participates backing down from this position, especially not the Netherlands who are a huge financial contributor, because AVROTROS has been more stubborn than any other broadcaster regarding Eurovision ever since the Joost Klein incident, and for very good reason.

Unfortunately I probably won’t go to Vienna for Eurovision 2026, unless maybe I get a high-paying job very soon and get lucky regarding vacation days. Even then, it would be much wiser to save up money for later trips. I need a new job very badly, but even if I do have one I might need to watch next Eurovision from home.

Introduction

After having won Eurovision 1971, the tiny country of Monaco originally wanted to host the next Eurovision contest, but the country had no concert hall or TV studio big enough to host the show. The second and third place countries, Spain and Germany, both declined to host, so the BBC stepped in and offered to stage the event in either Blackpool or Edinburgh. In the end, Edinburgh had the honor of hosting the event, making this the first Eurovision in Scotland, and the only Eurovision hosted in a part of the UK other than England. The show took place in the Usher Hall, which has a modest 2200 seats. You won’t hear much of a Scottish accent from the presenter, Moira Shearer—her accent is total Received Pronunciation (RP), just as much as our good pal Katie Boyle.

This year had the same 18 participating countries as 1971, and the same 1-5 star voting system as well. The winner was Luxembourg with the iconic song “Après toi”, the UK scored yet another second place, and Germany scored a third place two years in a row although they still had yet to win. In last place came Malta for two years in a row, which led them to skip the next two years.

Last time I watched the contest with German commentary, but this time with British commentary done by Tom Fleming. He begins the show narrating the history of Scotland as though he’s a movie narrator. The orchestra plays an arrangement of “Un banc, un arbre, une rue” in homage to Monaco as the camera pans down to the audience, all dressed in fancy suits but with a little splash of color. Then Moira Shearer enters this year’s glamorous stage and gives the usual efficient British-style introduction to the show in English and French. Sadly the show doesn’t have postcards this year, but it does have cute little photos of each competing artist on the big screen before each song begins.

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Progress on updating my Homestuck posts, continued

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The latest shitstorm of drama involving Andrew Hussie (not gonna go into it here) has made me realize, I still need to fix a bunch of shit in my old Homestuck posts and these articles aren’t going to fix themselves. So I will continue from this earlier post and write a progress log, mostly just for myself.

By the way, Andrew Hussie is a complete and utter asshole. I knew this already, since 2020 if not earlier, but it still shocks me how much of a dick he is to fans. Especially the ones who made it possible to read his comic after the website fucking broke!

Changelog:

  • August 12, 2025: Updated the images for posts 34 to 36. I’m making progress, people.
  • August 13, 2025: Updated posts 37 to 38. I should say the pesterlog in part 37 where Tavros reveals he killed Jade’s grandpa is one of my favorite scenes in Homestuck because it’s peak cringe comedy and Jade handles the whole thing like a champ. Especially the part where Tavros starts fucking hitting on her. Now with all that said, developing feelings for someone you met online after just a day is a real thing that happens. That doesn’t make Tavros’s confession any less embarrassing.
  • August 14, 2025: Updated posts 39 to 40. “The Miracle of a New Beginning” is such a banger post title.
  • August 15, 2025: Updated posts 41 to 43. Karkat imagining Jade’s selfcest is just the most Karkat thing, isn’t it?
  • August 16, 2025: Updated post 44. Fuck, it’s annoying to have to keep fixing the GIFs.
  • August 18, 2025: Updated posts 45 to 46. In part 45 (released a few days before Act 7) you can see me holding out hope for the final update being something it simply wasn’t. Since then, I’ve come around on Act 7. And part 46 is a tipping point for my blog, I feel. My analysis of John and Vriska’s conversation was more intensive and earnest than any till this point. I was quite self aware with the line, “I’ll probably look back on THESE posts and think they could’ve been a lot better, but for now, as far as I’m concerned they are supreme masterpieces that I am totally in love with.”
  • August 20, 2025: Updated posts 47 to 48. Holy shit, this is tedious.
  • August 22, 2025: Updated posts 49 to 50. “Hey, didn’t this comic have something to do with a clown killing people? I really can’t remember with all of John’s gushing about Liv Tyler and how gorgeous she is.” is a banger quote.
  • September 5, 2025: Updated posts 51 to 53. Now I’ve begun with the Doc Scratch intermission, my favorite part of Homestuck! Some long-ass posts where I need to fix the images coming right up.
  • September 7, 2025: Updated posts 54 to 55. These are some of my best Homestuck posts before the two-year hiatus, even though I wrote them when I was 17.
  • September 8, 2025: Updated posts 56 to 58. Doc Scratch’s ancestor exposition (in part 58) is one of my favorite parts of Homestuck to reread, whereas Mindfang’s exposition is one of my least favorite parts to reread.
  • September 9, 2025: Updated post 59, the Cascade post. That was a real pain in the ass, but hey, I got to rewatch Cascade for fun. I didn’t need to screenshot the flash all over again, I just once more used the readmspa.org storyboard.
  • September 15, 2025: Updated posts 60 to 61. Fuck, Act 6 Act 1 is fucking boring and I wrote the most pointless walls of text about it. You know how Caliborn insists Dirk is the only good alpha kid? I’m sort of that way with Roxy now. She’s fucking awesome.